Saturday, March 24, 2012

China should be stripped of its "approved buyer" status for legal ivory demands EIA

According to the latest report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), approved legal auctions of ivory by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to Japan and China has increased, rather than decreased as promised, the illegal trade.
EIA says the black market in China is flourishing. Up to 90 percent of ivory sold in China was in fact from illegal sources. Guangzhouis is the epicenter of the illegal trade.
EIA alleges that the Chinese Government has profiteered from selling legal ivory. In 2008, the Chinese government paid around $157 per kilo of ivory, and then sold it to traders for almost ten times as much. This has turned topsy-turvy the whole calculations of the international community of conservationists. Legalising the trade has not given any positive results.
The EIA unequivocally says China should be stripped of its "approved buyer" status for legal ivory, and has demanded for an independent investigation of the ivory trade in China.